Close, but never close enough: Scots are once again left to rue the lack of a killer instinct on the big occasion

There is no clear-cut dictionary definition of the word ‘clutch’ in the sporting sense, but just about everybody knows what it means.

It was coined initially by the Americans who used it to describe a basketball or baseball player who, when the pressure was mounting towards the end of a tight encounter, would somehow hold their nerve in the dying seconds to execute a game-defining play.

Whether that meant a walk-off home run or a buzzer-beating three-pointer, a clutch player was instantly recognised as someone who could, somehow, block out all the background noise and tension and make a difference when it mattered most.

Every elite athlete can look good in training but there’s a reason footballers go weak at the knees when it comes to penalty shoot-outs, the drama of the occasion and the demanding roars of the crowd causing their mind — and then their body — to falter.

Murrayfield held its breath hoping for clutch intervention on Saturday night but, when it arrived, it came not in the dark blue of Scotland but in the white, blood-stained jersey of an All Black.

Damian McKenzie might have a Caledonian-sounding name but his match-defining actions were those of a player born, raised and schooled in the New Zealand tradition of winning even when the chips are down.

Scotland had the momentum as a pulsating Test match moved into its final quarter — but not the killer touch. Instead, it was McKenzie who seized the moment, not once but thrice. It was his booming 50:22 kick that finally got New Zealand out of their own half and landed them a line-out close to the Scotland line.

Several phases later, and it was McKenzie again who showed the mental fortitude to back himself to beat both Blair Kinghorn and George Turner in the corner and then the acrobatic dexterity to somehow contort his body to land the legitimate grounding, a try worthy of winning any match.

Even after he then fluffed his conversion attempt, the Chiefs back did not allow that slip to fluster him as he grabbed the ball at New Zealand’s next penalty to land a monster kick that rubber-stamped a hard-fought and yet almost inevitable victory for his team.

Struggling to hit top form in the second half and under the cosh after having three players sent to the sin-bin, the All Blacks had cause to thank McKenzie for his clutch performance as they stretched their dominance in this fixture beyond the 120-year mark.

The advent of the Nations Cup next year will provide Scotland with more games against their New Zealand tormentors although, given this latest episode of dragging defeat from the jaws of victory, then perhaps that isn’t a development that Dark Blue fans should look forward to with any huge relish.

The Murrayfield announcer bawling at full-time that ‘the fun doesn’t stop here’ would surely have grated with those among the 67,000 crowd who had shelled out a pretty penny hoping to see Scotland finally beat New Zealand at the 33rd time of asking.

And those invested in the team rather than just there with pals for a boozy day out in the capital — one lot in the main stand chose to pose for their group selfie literally seconds before McKenzie’s try — would surely have had cause to troop out of the ground at full-time and ask: Where are our clutch players? Who in a Scotland shirt could do what McKenzie did when the stakes were high and the level of difficulty even higher?

In recent times there haven’t been too many. You think back to Paris in March 2021 when Duhan van der Merwe crossed the line with the clock deep in the red to break French hearts and seal Scotland’s first win there in 22 years. There was Finn Russell making a late penalty the year after to silence England and confirm a second successive Calcutta Cup victory.

Such highlights, though, have been fleeting from a Scottish perspective on Gregor Townsend’s watch. Instead, it is the rinse and repeat of late disappointment that has become the recurring theme, especially when New Zealand are in town. Just like in 2017 and 2022, Scottish hopes rose expectantly that this was finally going to be their day, only for the All Blacks to cruelly extinguish it once again.

Anyone watching Scotland for the first time on Saturday evening would have come away with the feeling that they had been simply unlucky. They had coughed up two soft tries in the first half to Cam Roigard and Will Jordan but also been unfortunate not to score themselves, with both Darcy Graham and Rory Hutchinson held up over the line.

They then shook off that disappointment to set up camp in the New Zealand 22 at the start of the second period, benefiting from the visitors’ rising ill-discipline to score through Ewan Ashman and Kyle Steyn. Ben White, Pierre Schoeman and Graham all had chances to put Scotland in front before McKenzie’s individual brilliance settled matters. A fair if concise assessment.

Seasoned Scotland observers, however, will know this was no one-off. That Townsend’s men have shown repeatedly that, on their day, they can be a match for any side in the world for spells but can never perform at that level for long enough to wring out a victory.

And in many ways that makes it almost more frustrating than if this had simply been the heavy, one-sided shellacking that the first half scoreline suggested it was going to become. Close but never close enough should be this team’s unofficial motto.

Since Townsend took charge of the national team back in 2017, Scotland have now faced New Zealand three times, South Africa four and Ireland 11....and lost all 18 matches.

Part of the reason for that sorry streak is that those nations have been, arguably, the world’s top three sides over the past decade. But there is no doubt that missed opportunity and mental frailty in key moments are to blame, too. Desperate for someone to come up clutch, Scotland instead find themselves repeatedly living with regret.